Betty Haines

Expert in the chemistry and conservation of leather

Betty Mary Haines, research chemist and leather conserver: born London 2 February 1925; MBE 1983; President, Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists 1986-88; died Slough, Berkshire 24 November 2003.

In an age when man-made materials of all sorts are ubiquitous, it is easy to forget how much we still owe to the oldest of all materials put to use by man, leather. If not as universal as it was when animals supplied everything from food to locomotion, many things - shoes, belts, books, chairs and car-seats, as well as harness - still need it. Well looked after, it is very durable, and bookbindings and Spanish leather wall-hangings show how decorative it can be. But it needs maintenance, and this fact, and the complex processes by which an organic substance changes, decays, and can be restored were a matter to which Betty Haines devoted a long and fruitful life.

Her career began in 1946, when she became a Research Assistant in the Biology Department of the British Leather Manufacturers' Research Association at Northampton. She had graduated from London University the year before in Botany, Chemistry and Zoology, and was now appointed by Dorothy Jordan-Lloyd, who had succeeded Sir Robert Pickard FRS as Director of the BLMRA in 1927. She died in 1947, and Haines's early work was done under Mary Dempsey, Head of the Biology Department; all three were remarkable women, whose work in the field was of lasting importance.

Haines herself became Head of the Biology Department in 1969 and in 1971 assumed the responsibility for biology and protein sciences. Officially, she retired in February 1985, but she continued as a consultant until 1988.

Her range of expertise was outstanding; her published work over 50 years ranged from the effects of farming practice on hide and skin quality to the performance of leather in shoe and garment construction. During the 1970s she managed a research project in conjunction with the UK Meat and Livestock Commission to establish a database for the characterisation of UK cattle hides and sheepskins. This work led to new ideas for the assessment of the yield of leather and for hide trading.

She undertook major studies on the effect of breed, age and feeding regime on hide quality and also did fundamental research in protein science, in particular the ageing of collagen and proteoglycans. Despite her involvement with such innovative research, she knew that it must always be of direct practical use to tanners. They in turn knew that she would put on wellington boots and work in the wet, cold, dirty conditions of hide stores and limeyards. But microscopes, both light and electron, were key tools for her research into the chemistry of leather; it led to a far better understanding of its structure and how it works in use.

Although she did so much for the leather trade today, it was the conservation of old leather, especially bookbinding leather, that was closest to her heart. She worked with A.D. Baines-Cope, Senior Principal Scientific Officer at the British Museum Research Laboratory, in pioneering and fruitful research that culminated in a report, The Conservation of Bookbinding Leather, published by the British Library in 1984, and in the British Standard BS7451:1991 for Archival Bookbinding Leather. She was also consulted by archaeologists on excavated leather and its preservation, and took a lively and practical interest in the conservation of any historic leather object.

All this work found its ideal outlet in the creation of the Leather Conservation Centre. She became one of its trustees in 1978, its first year, becoming Chairman of the Technical Advisory Panel in 1984, Chairman of Trustees in 1987 and President from 1999. Altogether, she guided it from its beginnings in a small room at the BLMRA to its present location in the spacious building, designed for the purpose, at the University College campus in Northampton. She was also an active member of professional associations: a Fellow and Council member of the Royal Microscopical Society; a Fellow, member of Council and President (1986 to 1988) of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists (SLTC), and consultant to the London Museum. She was appointed MBE in 1983.

Besides her busy professional life there was another Betty, as popular to friends and neighbours as to her colleagues. Her family moved to Heston when she was three when it was a sleepy village at the end of the Piccadilly Line. Over the next 75 years she saw it grow to a busy suburb under the wing (all too literally) of nearby Heathrow. She went to Heston Primary and Southall County Girls School, where her scientific ability was discovered. She was an active parishioner of St Leonard's, Heston, and no church occasion, outing or party ever lacked her cheerful and vigorous participation. She enjoyed all sorts of sport, especially sailing.

She never married, but reached out to a vast family, from godchildren to fellow workers, all of whom benefited from her lively generosity.

Nicolas Barker